Art Market Monitor

Global Coverage ~ Unique Analysis

  • AMMpro
  • AMM Fantasy Collecting Game
  • Podcast
  • Contact Us

Husband Removes Art, Offers Basquiat at Christie’s Before Filing for Divorce

November 9, 2015 by Marion Maneker

This Basquiat estimated at $4-6m is slated for Christie’s Tuesday night Postwar and Contemporary art sale but the wife of its owner (he says his company owns it and it is not marital property) just discovered it was for sale. She also just learned that she’s getting divorced:

Tracey Hejailan-Amon filed suit in Manhattan Monday against her soon-to-be ex, Maurice Alain Amon, saying she collected between 17 and 20 modern works including Andy Warhol’s 1966 “Self-Portrait” and Jean-Michel Basquiat’s 1986 “Saxaphone” with her husband throughout their marriage.

Then, in October, Amon’s art consultants “surreptitiously” lifted the collection from their $16 million Manhattan apartment and stashed them in a Queens storage facility while she was abroad, according to the filing.

“These illegal and unlawful removals of the works of art is and was a strategic predicate for the service of a divorce action by Amon,” Hejailan charges in her suit. He later filed for divorce in Monaco. “She was in Europe and she didn’t even know what was going on. She thought she was happily married,” said Hejailan’s attorney, Aaron Richard Golub.

My ex secretly stashed our priceless art before filing for divorce: socialite (New York Post)

More from Art Market Monitor

  • When Artists Do HouseworkWhen Artists Do Housework
  • Richter is the New PicassoRichter is the New Picasso
  • Sotheby’s NY Contemporary Eve = $293.6mSotheby’s NY Contemporary Eve = $293.6m
  • SF Gallery’s Stolen Picasso Drawing Becomes Marketing PloySF Gallery’s Stolen Picasso Drawing Becomes Marketing Ploy
  • The Wesselmann Estate’s Move, A Turning Point?The Wesselmann Estate’s Move, A Turning Point?
  • Indian Art Market Forges AheadIndian Art Market Forges Ahead

Filed Under: General

About Marion Maneker

Want to get Art Market Monitor‘s posts sent to you in our email? Sign up below by clicking on the Subscribe button.

Top Posts

  • Keith Haring’s 1989 Retrospect Comes to Sotheby’s London Prints Sale
  • Tony Podesta's Secret Art Buying
  • Four of Picasso's Women Valued at $28m Come to Christie's from Rose-Walters Collection
  • Norman Rockwell's Not Gay. But Is He a Great Artist?
  • The Billion-Dollar NYC Apartment of Ben Heller
  • $10 M. Picasso Portrait Unseen for Decades to Sell at Bonhams
  • How to Chant Like an Auctioneer
  • David Bowie Talks About Art (with Julian Schnabel)
  • Breaking Views: Art Doesn't Hedge Inflation
  • Mapping a Career in the Art World
  • About Us/ Contact
  • Podcast
  • AMMpro
  • Newsletter
  • FAQ

twitterfacebooksoundcloud
Privacy Policy
Terms & Conditions
California Privacy Rights
Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Advertise on Art Market Monitor